


Let the Games Begin

by StripedSunhat



Series: Single Father Klaus [6]
Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Family Bonding, For once not therapy inducing!, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-08-01 16:02:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16287602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StripedSunhat/pseuds/StripedSunhat
Summary: Guess who finally found time to spend with his onlyreadily availablechild and play games?Also, Gil cheats.Shamelessly.





	Let the Games Begin

**Author's Note:**

> Parts of this were really easy to write. Other parts of it hated me. It's okay, reading them back, I kind of hate them too.

“Father?” Klaus turned around to see his son standing by the edge of the doorframe, reluctant to step forward any further. He’d been like that the last time he’d been here too. “Why did you want me to come to your quarters and not the lab? Am I in trouble?” Klaus stifled a chuckle and beckoned his son inside. He really did need to work on his son’s hesitance when it came to quarters that, for the most part, he technically had just as much right to be in as Klaus.  “No son, you’re not in trouble.” He set the polished wooden case on the table, immediately drawing Gilgamesh's eye. “We can head down to the lab if you prefer but I thought you might be interested in learning to play a few games instead.”

Gilgamesh darted over to the game case. “Really?”

Klaus didn’t bother stifling his laugh this time. “I take it that’s a yes?”

“Yes please.”

* * *

Backgammon. The perfect game to start Gilgamesh on. An easy game to learn the basics of but it took a great deal of practice and thought in order to master. It required strategy and patience. It was also an excellent introduction to battlefield tactics. It forced you to think through how you moved your pieces and any left on their own were constantly under threat. If your opponent did capture one your entire strategy ground to a halt until you could get it back to safety.

Most importantly it was fun. It had always been one of Klaus’s favorites. Hopefully – Hopefully Gilgamesh would like it too.

Unsurprisingly given his intelligence, it only took a couple of rounds for Gilgamesh to get a handle on the basics. When he finally had to return to the school that night it was with a rapidly burgeoning love of the game and an easily agreed to promise on Klaus’s end that they would play again soon.

It didn’t take long for time spent out of the lab playing games in Klaus’s quarters instead to become a regular occurrence. And with it Klaus was treated to a side of his son he’d never seen before: the highly competitive side. Gilgamesh did not take ‘you’re still learning’ as an excuse for losing. Case in point, tonight. Gilgamesh pouted down at the brown tiles neatly lined up in their holder in contrast to his own which were still half on the game board. “Rematch,” he demanded.

“You played well Gil.”

“I still _lost_. Rematch.”

Klaus glanced at the clock. “Not tonight. It’s late, you need to be getting to bed.”

“Please? We don’t have any classes tomorrow, I don’t have to get up early.”

“The school’s curfew is still the same though and I’m not keeping you out past it.”

“But – _Fine_.” Klaus raised his eyebrows, making it clear he did not approve of the attitude. Duly contrite, Gilgamesh left without further complaint.

Two days later Klaus managed to forcibly carve out some time with his son. Gilgamesh wasn’t in his lab but a quick trip to the school found him studying by himself in one of the common areas. Klaus positioned himself on the upper railing directly in Gilgamesh’s potential eye line and drew one of the nearby guards into a pointless, superficial conversation about the school’s security measures. Sure enough when he glanced back over Gilgamesh was packing up his things, saying something to DuMedd who’d apparently come over when Klaus wasn’t looking. With a wave to DuMedd Gilgamesh quickly ducked out of the room. Klaus wound down his conversation, following his son’s exit.

Gilgamesh was waiting in the hallway for him rather than going ahead to the lab. “Rematch?” he asked as soon as Klaus was in sight.

Klaus smiled down at his son’s eager face. “Only if you’re ready to lose for a second time.”

Klaus hadn’t actually meant his words to be prophetic. However it looked like they might be. Klaus had captured one of Gilgamesh’s pieces early and his usual luck at rolling doubles had abandoned him.

“Your roll son.” Gilgamesh’s glare, which had been directed at his captured piece shifted to Klaus. Klaus was about to say something (admittedly, it probably would have been something teasing, which maybe wouldn’t have been the best thing to say) when an explosion rocked the airship followed closely by _just_ enough screams that Klaus should investigate. “Go ahead and play, I’ll be back as soon as I can.” As Klaus left he could hear Gil’s disappointed groan. Must not have gotten the roll he was hoping for.

When he came back though – false alarm, most of the screaming had come from the experiment subjects, not the Sparks or the guards – Gilgamesh had apparently rolled the double needed to reclaim his lost piece. “And here I thought you’d been disappointed with your roll when I left.”

“I didn’t realize it was a double right away.” Did Gilgamesh really expect Klaus to swallow that? Gilgamesh held out the dice cup. “Your roll Father.” Klaus hummed disbelievingly but took the cup anyway.

* * *

Gin Rummy. A game of part strategy, part chance. Excellent for memory. Even more excellent for statistics. Also a good game for critical thinking and inference You couldn’t see your opponent’s hand or half the choices they made.

Gilgamesh had become surprisingly attached to backgammon. When Klaus suggested trying a different game he actually clutched the case to his chest like he was afraid Klaus would take it away from him. They ended up playing another round of backgammon that day instead.

However eventually curiosity won out and then his natural competiveness kicked in. ‘I guess we can try it’ became ‘I am _going_ to learn this’ which then became ‘I’m not playing a different game until I can win this one’. That might take a while. Gilgamesh could win individual hands but they never seemed to add up to enough to win a game. It was getting a bit ridiculous when Gilgamesh openly stared at the backgammon set even as he picked up the cards. Klaus knew better than to try to convince his son otherwise. And he certainly wasn’t about to throw the game. That wasn’t an option on every level there was.

Still as the hands went on Klaus couldn’t help wishing the round was going differently. At this rate Gilgamesh would end up hating the game from sheer over-exposure. He’d been keeping up well but Klaus only needed twenty-four points to win. Gil was glaring at the deck like he could manifest a winning hand through anger-fueled willpower. Klaus was a little surprised the cards didn’t catch on fire.

“Herr Baron! The bridge is on fire!!” Points for his son’s newly discovered pyrokinesis however his aim could stand some fine-tuning.

“Stay here. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He set his hand down and went to put out some fires. Literally this time. When he got back Gilgamesh had stopped glaring at the deck. Well that was an improvement if nothing else.

He could have sworn he’d set his cards down sideways...

Smoke inhalation did not do good things for him.

Gilgamesh picked up the next card. He blinked at it. Then he immediately shoved it into his hand. So maybe ‘improvement’ had been the wrong word. Even with his son’s confusing behavior the game continued uneventfully for the next several turns. Then Gil picked up the discarded nine of clubs. But that didn’t make any sense. Klaus had been watching what cards Gilgamesh had been picking up. There was no reason for Gil to want that nine. A few moves later when the nine of spades came up he snatched it up too. What was his son even doing? And then a handful of draws after that Gilgamesh discarded the nine of clubs. Klaus gave up. He had no idea what his son’s strategy was. The game continued on.

“Gin.”

Klaus looked up. Gilgamesh triumphantly laid out his cards. In addition to the three fours Klaus had known about and the run of five-six-seven-eight of hearts he’s suspected there was also a run of nine-ten-jack of spades. Klaus could have sworn Gilgamesh had been angling for aces or a run of ace-two-three of hearts. Why change strategies this late in the game to something that if he failed would cost him so much more points? Not that it hadn’t ended up serving him well. Klaus had needed that ten. Klaus laid out his own hand and Gil scooped up his unmatched tens and loose six. “That’s twenty-six points, plus twenty-five for gin, making it fifty-one. Which puts my total score at five hundred and eight. I think that means I win.”

“Well played son.”

Gilgamesh beamed. “Do we have time for a round of backgammon?” Oh thank the lord, no more endless gin games. Klaus checked his watch.

“I believe so. We have time to start one at least.” As Gilgamesh scampered off to collect the board Klaus gathered up the cards. On a hunch he checked Gilgamesh’s gin discard. It was the other ten he’d needed.

* * *

Cribbage. Another good card game. Much more based on luck than gin. Perhaps a bit simplistic for Gilgamesh given that everything in it was based on basic addition but Klaus had a feeling the randomness of the draw would appeal to Gilgamesh’s risk-taking tendencies without introducing him to gambling (he did _not_ want to deal with that yet).

Gilgamesh won the second game they played. Klaus stared at the board in shock. Well. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about playing nothing else for the next several weeks.

Cribbage, as it turned out, was an excellent game to play in relatively small amounts of time. When Gilgamesh didn’t show up at his normal time Klaus pulled out the board. He was halfway through setting it up when Gilgamesh came barreling in. “I’m sorry!”

Klaus started shuffling the deck. “You always arrive at six.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

He dealt out two hands of six. “It is now six-ten.” He held one of the hands out toward his son. “You are late.”

Gilgamesh took the hand, not looking up. “I’m sorry.”

Klaus let them play in silence for several minutes. Finally when it became clear that Gilgamesh would not offer any explanation he broke the silence for him. “How are Theopholous and the others?

Gilgamesh froze. “What do you mean?” he stammered.

“So you weren’t late because you were with them instead?”

“It’s not their fault, I –” Klaus held up a hand, cutting off his son’s babble.

“It’s not a bad thing to have friends Gilgamesh. I’m not going to get mad at you for spending time with them.”

Gilgamesh nodded wildly. “Of course Father.”

“That being said, you can’t ignore your responsibilities for them. If you are suppose to be somewhere you still need to be there on time.”

“I’m sorry Father.”

“I’m sure they didn’t mean to make you late. Just remember in the future.”

“Yes Father.” The silence that followed was infinitely more comfortable than before, the quiet of concentration and focus rather than nervous secrets. And Klaus was ahead at the end of the first hand, which never hurt.

Then a messenger crashed into the room. Goodbye blissful quiet. “Herr Baron! You’re needed in –”

“Yes, yes,” he said, waving the annoyance off. “I’ll be right there.”

“One and a half hands without interruptions,” Gilgamesh said, rearranging his hand, “a new record.”

“I’ll be back as –”

“– soon as you can. I know. Go fix the empire. I know it’s important.”

A different messenger fell into the room. This one was covered in purple fluid. It was eating away at his clothes. “Herr Baron! It’s getting bigger!”

“It? No – Don’t. Tell me as we go. It’ll take too long otherwise.”

He did not get back to the cribbage game that night. Gilgamesh left it out for them to finish just like they always did when he ended up pulled away for too long.

Wait –

Klaus doubled back and stared harder at the board. He could have _sworn_ the pegs were in different places than before. This wasn’t the first time he’d come back only for the placement of the pegs to look off to him. He crouched down so that he was level with the board. They were. His front peg had been even with the little knick in the side of the board. And now it was three spaces back from it. And Gilgamesh’s was definitely further along on the game board than it should be.

That little sneak.

* * *

Klaus replaced the cribbage board with a new one. It was a lovely set. The best feature however was that the holes were grouped in clumps of five, spaced apart from each other and the surrounding board painted different colors by groups. It was remarkably easy to tell at even the barest glance exactly where the pegs were.

Gilgamesh _made_ a cribbage board for the holidays. It was beautiful and intricate, arranged in a twisting labyrinthine pattern. It also had absolutely no distance or grouping markers.

* * *

The next time Klaus got called away while they were playing gin he pocketed his hand before leaving. When he got back the placement of the deck was – just slightly – off. Every card Gil picked up from it was one he needed.

* * *

“If it were me I would have taken my opponent’s exposed piece.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about Father. My roll wouldn’t have let me take your piece even if I wanted to. Besides, I think it’s more important to protect my own pieces than to attack a still strong opponent. Who knows how soon you would have rolled doubles and been free to go after my lone piece?”

“I would think given your _luck_ with rolling doubles that wouldn’t be much of a risk to you.”

“Still. I think defending my pieces is more important than attacking yours. Not that it matters. Since my roll wouldn’t have let me take your piece.”

“Of course.”

* * *

Chess. Perhaps the most quintessential game of strategy there was. Certainly popular amongst the rest of Europa’s nobility. Gilgamesh would need at least a passible grip of all the most common strategies before he got anywhere near the fifty families or anyone of actual political note. In all honesty Klaus shouldn’t have put off teaching him for as long as he had. It was a game that took time to become even somewhat proficient in after all. It’s just – Klaus had always found it a bit, well, dull. It was a fine enough game. It just wasn’t Klaus’s first choice for how he would spend what little free time he had. Maybe Gilgamesh would enjoy it more than he did.

Chess, it quickly became apparent, would not be dethroning backgammon any time soon. However it was still a game he needed to learn, so it was one that he did.

Today was one such teaching session. (Because neither of them really had enough fun for Klaus to consider it playing. Maybe when Gilgamesh got good enough at it that his natural competiveness could make an appearance. Maybe.)

The door was flung open. Klaus looked up, fully expecting another messenger. It was fine. Klaus had long since resigned himself to the fact that he was cursed never to be able to spend any real time with his son without _some_ form of dire interruption. In fact it was Zoing who burst into the room. “Zoing? What are you doing here?”

Ignoring the question, Zoing scuttled directly over to Gilgamesh, grabbing one of his sleeves and tugging as hard as he could, trying to pull Gilgamesh out of his seat. “Gilcome! Gilcome!”

“Is everything all right son?”

“I don’t –” Gilgamesh tried to reclaim his sleeve. It didn’t work. “I don’t know. I had him monitoring one of my experiments. It should have been fine though.” Zoing tugged harder on the sleeve trapped in his claws.

“Evidently not. Go check.”

Gilgamesh’s head snapped up. “But we were playing. It would be rude to just leave in the middle.”

“Son. Go check on your experiment. Preferably before anything explodes.”

“Yes Father.” Gilgamesh slid off his seat, almost falling over as Zoing continued tugging at him.

“And Gilgamesh. If it is going to explode, you…?”

“Abandon the experiment and get out of the lab immediately,” Gilgamesh dutifully parroted.

“Good. Now go. I’ll wait.”

After another moment of dithering Gilgamesh dashed out of the room leaving Klaus alone with the chessboard. Klaus looked down at the board. Then at the empty doorway. Quickly before he could think better of it he moved his bishop over. While he was at it he pushed back Gilgamesh’s rook.

It took less than five minutes for Gilgamesh to return. “It was fine,” he panted, clearly have run all the way there and back. “Zoing just didn’t realize –” Gil cut himself off.

Klaus finally let himself look at his son, carefully schooling his face to give nothing away. “Is something wrong son?”

“Is that where the pieces were before I left?”

“Of course it is.”

Gil kept eyeing the board suspiciously. “Are you sure?”

Klaus smiled, wide and purposefully untrustworthily. He leaned forward, propping his elbows on the table. “Now son, you know I would never disrespect the honor and the integrity of the game by cheating.”

**Author's Note:**

> Technically some of the games are anachronistic. But this is not the sort of work where that is quite as horrible a faux pas as it could be. I chose these games because they were the ones my father taught me and that we used to play together. Except unlike Klaus my dad was wonderful and always, always made time for my brother and me and always made sue we knew how much he loved us and how proud he was of us. And unlike Gil I didn't cheat. I was just as competitive though.
> 
> (Also, there is no such thing as too many gin games. No. Such. Thing.)


End file.
